The present invention relates to a vehicle wheel assembly and cladding therefore, and in particular to a cladding configuration adaptable for use with a flangeless vehicle wheel.
Ornamental outer coverings have been employed for providing a decorative surface to the exposed surface of a vehicle wheel for many years. The use of outer coverings offer design flexibility in various design configurations that may be used to cover a single-style wheel. In certain applications, the ornamental wheel covering is constructed of a polymeric material or plastic that is then coated with a metal plating. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,564,791; 5,577,809; 5,597,213; 5,630,654; 5,636,906; 5,845,973; and 6,085,829, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference, represent different approaches for providing and attaching such claddings to existing wheels to provide a decorative appearing wheel.
Heretofore, stainless steel has been used in a wide variety of outer coverings due to corrosion resistance, relative cost, and the flexibility it offers in the design of the associated coverings. Similarly, preferred materials such as steel and aluminum have been used in a wide variety of vehicle wheel designs due to the strength, relative cost and adaptability these materials offer. However, previous designs of these outer coverings and vehicle wheels require significant expenditure during manufacture in order to incorporate certain details. Specifically, previous wheel designs require the casting of complex geometries and/or significant machining in order to form certain details such as the wheel flange.
Therefore, a vehicle wheel assembly is desired that includes a cladding that is adaptable to be used with steel or aluminum wheels that do not include an integrally-forged, casted and/or machined outer flange. Further, these claddings should be long-lasting, corrosion resistant, relatively inexpensive to manufacture, and relatively easy to form into required configurations.